Lore question: Do the Craftworld Eldar have an economy?

So I picked up the Path of the Seer yesterday, and plowed through Path of the Warrior last year. And as could be expected of a series that presents a VERY rare glimpse into the inner society of a race that is literally alien to ours, it has me asking questions beyond "do these characters survive to the next book?"

The first thing that caught my interest is Thirianna's brief time on the Path of the Poet. By her own admission, and confirmed by Korlandril, no one else sees her poems, they sit in a shelf in her house. Largely because it's part of a therapy exercise, but that's beside the point; the relevant thing is that she has no source of direct income. She's not selling them, nor does it seem to be a hobby in her free time.

This got me asking: do the Eldar have a Star-Trek style money-less society? Where anything anyone could want -- food, housing, provisions -- is in ample supply thanks to matter replicators? Or is Thirianna just living off her pension checks from her service as a Dire Avenger?

I started thinking back through PotW for anything else to support this hypothesis. Personal transportation in a craftworld is achieved through a glorified bikeshare (Carshare?). I also don't remember the Striking Scorpions needing to pay for their food at a food court, but that might just need a reread

It's possible the Eldar do not have currency, instead they simply ask for what they need, and are not greedy enough to ask for more than what they need, and thus goods and services are shuffled around without requiring a concept of wealth.

Without wealth, no one is poor. The level of technology the Eldar possess is sufficient to provide everyone with what they need. The motivation to contribute to society is not driven through the need for wealth, but an innate desire to contribute to their society, to do things that matter.

So, effectively, yes, they are probably a moneyless society like Star Trek's United Federation of Planets.

Perhaps. While I am loathe to compare them to the Noble Necrontyr, when your production masters mass to energy conversion (or can sing stuff into existence that works too I guess) then your economy becomes irrelevant. This leads to the interesting question of how do you get things if you have no money? In The Necrontyr Empire, I imagine the room and board was supplied by the state in exchange for continuation of services, and Nobility and soldiers simply put in orders for required supplies. In this case, it seems the arts would become important, as art and war are the only two things you cannot reliably mass produce (note reliably being used, canopteks and wraith constructs just aren't as good as a standing army). This would explain the excessive artistry of the Eldar during their empire, and likely these events were free for public viewing in both societies, with skill being "paid" with patronage, fame, and bigger concerts and the like. I wonder what our own race would do when the economy becomes a relic of the past.

Perhaps. While I am loathe to compare them to the Noble Necrontyr, when your production masters mass to energy conversion (or can sing stuff into existence that works too I guess) then your economy becomes irrelevant. This leads to the interesting question of how do you get things if you have no money? In The Necrontyr Empire, I imagine the room and board was supplied by the state in exchange for continuation of services, and Nobility and soldiers simply put in orders for required supplies. In this case, it seems the arts would become important, as art and war are the only two things you cannot reliably mass produce (note reliably being used, canopteks and wraith constructs just aren't as good as a standing army). This would explain the excessive artistry of the Eldar during their empire, and likely these events were free for public viewing in both societies, with skill being "paid" with patronage, fame, and bigger concerts and the like. I wonder what our own race would do when the economy becomes a relic of the past.

Antimatter fascinates me to be honest. I often wonder what a universe would be like comprised of it. What an anti-person would be like. The only real use I can fathom outside of war however is power generation. Then again, a physicist I am not.

Antimatter fascinates me to be honest. I often wonder what a universe would be like comprised of it. What an anti-person would be like. The only real use I can fathom outside of war however is power generation. Then again, a physicist I am not.

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Erm.

It would be exactly like our universe. An anti-person would be exactly like a person.

The physicist who wrote the article seemed to think that it was useless for both war and power generation, because of how incredibly difficult it is to make.

It would be exactly like our universe. An anti-person would be exactly like a person.

The physicist who wrote the article seemed to think that it was useless for both war and power generation, because of how incredibly difficult it is to make.

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I had assumed antimatter would have different laws of physics, as gravitons for example are matter (actually I might be wrong not sure). On the subject of energy, I simply said it's all I could think of, not that it would be usefull or efficient. It's just I struggle to conceive additional uses for something that reacts to existing by exploding.

I had assumed antimatter would have different laws of physics, as gravitons for example are matter (actually I might be wrong not sure). On the subject of energy, I simply said it's all I could think of, not that it would be usefull or efficient. It's just I struggle to conceive additional uses for something that reacts to existing by exploding.

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Scientific research, apparently.

Also they're used in a medical scan called a PET scan.

Also, the article I linked will explain antimatter. I'm not sure if you read it or not.